In the beginning...

So unfortunately our yellow tang (Lemon Drop) must have been startled and jumped out of the tank the other night. This was the first fish that my kids have actually been sad over losing it since it was one of our first. It was enough to motivate me to finish up the lid. So it's good that I got it finished but bad since it took us losing another fish to get it done.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I was a little unsure how the spline would do in the groove I made. It's 1/4" acrylic and I made an 1/8" groove on the inside edge of it. That only left 1/16" of material above and below the groove. It was a bit of a pain pushing the spline in since the groove was on the side instead of on the top like a normal screen. The small "window" in the middle back is for my auto feeder to sit behind (over the top of the overflow) and have the food fall through the screen.

Acrylic does absorb water and so if it absorbs it on one side and not the other it will warp slightly. I'm hoping that with so much of it open that if it does absorb moisture it will do so more evenly and stay relatively flat. I can still add some vertical pieces along the edges to keep it from warping but I really don't want to do this since it will look more obtrusive. It may come down to that though since I also don't want it looking all junky from it being warped either.

I don't even know where I would begin to make a lid like that. The most interesting part is that half circle opening. Seems like a lot of extra work for that part that seems mostly decorative? But looks great! I paid about $250 for my AA lid. If the acrylic holds up well, maybe you should go into business? Haha. I'm sure it was a lot of work. Not sure it's worth it.

I don't even know where I would begin to make a lid like that. The most interesting part is that half circle opening. Seems like a lot of extra work for that part that seems mostly decorative? But looks great! I paid about $250 for my AA lid. If the acrylic holds up well, maybe you should go into business? Haha. I'm sure it was a lot of work. Not sure it's worth it.

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Thanks guys. I'm pretty sure that the artfully acrylic guy has a cnc setup. For mine, I had to make a template first out of wood so that I could run a router around it and have the bearing of the bit follow the template. That's the old school way of doing it before the days of cnc.

As for making a business out of it; it's crossed my mind since I look at how expensive some things are and I know I can build them (sometimes better) for less. It seems expensive at first but when you think of how much it costs to make it a viable business, it's not usually too bad. People do the same thing with me for my staircases so it gives me some perspective.

In the end I build much of my stuff simply because I enjoy building it and I can make it exactly the way I want it.

I picked up a new yellow tang (Lemom Drop 2.0) from Neptune the other day. I looked for the smallest but healthiest one I could find. Smallest so that it would naturally be the submissive to the Achilles. The Achilles immediately started bullying her. I gave it about an hour but he was relentless and she was cowering in the corner of the tank. So my wife ran and got a couple of mirrors that I taped to the side of the tank where he had her trapped. I'm surprised how well it worked. He rounded the rocks ready to dart at her again and stopped in his tracks when he saw his reflection. It took him a little while to get up the courage to go check it out. Then he quickly started beating up his reflection and completely ignored Lemon Drop 2.0. The lyretail anthias were enthralled with their reflection and couldn't get enough of their new friends. I think they're a little sad now that the mirrors are gone. I haven't noticed any further aggression. Everythhing seems copasetic again.

So 24 hours of mirror resolved aggression? I guess fish have a short memory span. After 24 hours it's like the yellow has been in the tank since the "beginning."

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It was a little more than 24 hours. I put her in on Monday and took the mirrors off this morning so more like 72 hours, but yes. They even eat peacefully, just the usual frantic swimming all over the tank trying to gobble up as much as possible.

I have experienced some unexplained deaths recently. Almost all my sps is gone, I lost two chalices and the other two are receding. I found two of my lyretail anthias dead and can't find the last one. I think the cuc got it before I could find it. Overall pretty depressing so I did a pretty massive 75 gallon water change (about 60% system volume). I'm hoping that sets things right again.

The corals dying has been a slow process over several weeks, maybe over a month. There had been a spike in alk that I thought caused it but that stabilized and they continued to deteriorate. My zoas and softies all seem fine. Oh, my sponge has lost all its color too. It's still got most of its flesh but no new growth.

The corals dying has been a slow process over several weeks, maybe over a month. There had been a spike in alk that I thought caused it but that stabilized and they continued to deteriorate. My zoas and softies all seem fine. Oh, my sponge has lost all its color too. It's still got most of its flesh but no new growth.